


Time's Up, Wise Up, Eyes Up

by mourntheknight



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Groundhog Day AU, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:43:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7931611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mourntheknight/pseuds/mourntheknight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>GROUNDHOG DAY AU kind of</p><p>In Paradise, Minho finds a box. Next thing he knows, he's back in the Maze. Day one. And he's on a mission to save Newt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time's Up, Wise Up, Eyes Up

**Author's Note:**

> warning: character death in a way? they come back

ZERO

Paradise is not what they expect. One of the adults has been appointed as the leader, with Thomas working as second-in-command. Minho can’t stay still. He was born to be a runner. He goes exploring every day, plotting the map of the island they’re on.

Every single day, an image of his friends flashes through his mind. The ones they lost in the fight to get to Paradise. Ben. Zart. Alby. Chuck. Winston. Teresa. To him, it’s hell without them. And he still has unanswered questions. Newt. Newt could be out there somewhere, or he could be dead, without a trace of him left on the Earth. The first time he realises this, he can’t find the stomach to eat for a whole day. His closest friend, the person who has been with him throughout the entire part of his life that he can remember, and he couldn’t save him.

He tries to distract himself, going on walks alone, finding out how to make life on this dull island more liveable. He tries to convince himself that he couldn’t have done anything more. It’s the only way he can survive without going insane.

Then, he finds it. A small cabin, located below the cliff they’re on, hidden away. It’s covered with cobwebs, and the door hinges screech in protest when he wrenches it open. The inside is bare, aside from a table, and on that table, a wooden box covered in a thick layer of dust. He doesn’t know what to make of it, and his first thought is to bring it back to the rest. But he can feel something. Something that tells him to open the box, to just _open_ it, and everything will be okay. He hasn’t felt that way in a long time.

Lifting the lid slowly and unsurely, he finds nothing but an old watch that looks like it’s from the early 2000s, and a short handwritten note that reads, _to bring back those who were left behind_. It all seems very mysterious to him, and he wants to bring it back to Thomas, to get a good laugh out of the guy. Part of him though, part of him wants to try it out. The same part that already has a list of people in mind despite knowing that this ancient watch probably had a probability of 0.000001 of working. Curiosity gets the better of him, and he straps it around his wrist. Taking a deep breath, he spins the tiny dial on the side of the watch’s face.

What he doesn’t expect is for his surroundings to fade away, and his vision to fade to black. His first thoughts are of the people in Paradise, of Thomas, of what they would think when they discover he’s missing. Then his mind turns to the note. His last thought is of the only time he made the choice to leave someone behind, and he thinks, _save Newt._

—————

ONE

He wakes up to shouting. His eyes shoot open, because he recognises those voices, and half of them are dead. Then he sees them. The doors. The doors to the Maze. _It’s a dream_ , he thinks at first. But then he sees Alby walking by with Nick and he pinches himself. It’s not a dream.

It takes him ten minutes to find out that it’s the day they first woke up in the maze. It takes him another five to find Newt. He stares at him like he’s seeing a ghost, and of course, how could he not? Newt is standing there, concern behind his wide, brown eyes, both legs intact, and with a fire behind his eyes that he hasn’t seen in years.

“Hey, I’m Newt,” he introduces himself, and pain shoots through Minho’s heart, because he _doesn’t know him_.

“Minho,” he replies numbly, trying not to think about it.

Afterwards, he realises what a chance he’s been given. Bring back someone who was left behind, the note said. Minho intends to do exactly that.

—————

He tries to do everything differently this time. He tries to save everyone, but it doesn’t always work. A glader still goes into the Maze and stays after the doors close. A glader still dies while climbing down the Box shaft. His main goal, though, is Newt. He still beats himself up for not being able to stop Newt from jumping the first time round, so he keeps a close eye on him. He tries to stop him. The day Newt intends to enter the Maze and not leave is the day Minho sticks to him like glue. And every day after that. But it still doesn’t work.

He sneaks off into the Maze when Minho is careless one day, and when Minho finally catches up with him, he sees Newt on the ground, blood oozing out from a head wound. Newt is barely breathing, and before Minho can run to get help, his eyes shut and his pulse stops.

Minho can feel himself becoming faint, and he tries to stop the world from spinning beneath his feet. He couldn’t stop him. His knees turn to jelly and he feels himself crashing to the ground. Then, nothing.

—————

TWO

He wakes up. Again. Same time, same place. He tries to turn the watch, to go back further, but nothing works. He’s determined to try again. Maybe he has a second chance. Maybe it’ll keep restarting till he gets it right.

He asks Nick to ban Newt from ever being a runner. It lasts for a while longer, but then one day just before the doors close, Newt runs in. He doesn’t come back, at least not before Minho hears a muffled, spine-chilling scream and everything goes dark.

—————

THREE

He guesses that the limp is pretty much inevitable. He stops trying to focus on it. He has more important things to work on, anyway. Like the cure to the Flare. He spends his days running with Newt, by his side, thinking about ways to find a solution. He doesn’t need to plot the Maze, he knows it like the back of his hand.

He’s halfway through a plan to infiltrate W.I.C.K.E.D. when they turn a corner and run straight into a griever. He’s so distracted that he doesn’t think quickly enough, and the griever launches itself at him. Before he can think to sidestep, or turn and run, Newt steps in front of him, back turned towards him.

“Run.” He says it with intent and foolish bravery. As if he could do anything at all.

—————

FOUR

He wakes up.

This time, he’s careful.

This time, he gets far enough to see Thomas and Teresa come up in the Box.

This time, he gets far enough to save Alby from getting stung. He does what Newt would do, and he takes the shot instead.

This time, Thomas doesn’t make it back from the night in the Maze.

This time, the grievers take Newt, and Minho still can’t do a thing to stop it.

—————

FIVE

Minho does everything by the book this time.

He watches his friends die again and again.

Then, the lightning storm hits. He keeps an eye out for Newt, tries to help, and when lightning strikes the ground inches away from Newt, he runs to him. Somehow, he pushes him out of the way of a lightning bolt, and something about this situation strikes Minho as being funny.

Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s dying and delirious because of the pain.

All the times he’s relived the Maze, and he’s never died once. Maybe this is the end. No more repeats. No more saving Newt. He wonders if this is what Newt felt like. He wonders if this is the end.

It’s not.

—————

SIX

He wakes up.

Even his own death brings him back to the start. He grows weary, and he tires. There’s only so much of this he can take. He thinks of the first time Alby got stung, when he ran to save his own skin. _Coward_ , he thinks.

This time, when he sees Newt running into the Maze, he follows him.

“Let me go with you,” he pleads.

Newt is hesistant. It seems so unlike Minho, somehow. But they’re both tired, and they both want peace, away from this.

They jump together.

Minho’s not really sure who dies first, but does it really matter? (Yes, it does. It can’t be Newt, because Minho makes sure to fall first, to shield Newt even though there’s no fucking point.)

—————

SEVEN

Shouting. Again.

He wakes up, and, as always, his first thought is of Newt. He goes to him.

“Hey, I’m Newt.”

“Minho.”

The greeting doesn’t change, and he’s pretty sure it never will. But it’s still a little different, because this time, he talks to Newt. He knows how he feels for the first time. He learns far more about him than anyone ever has, even Alby. He’s better friends with Newt this time, and despite not having memories of lives before the Maze, they talk about little nothings, about what they would do when they got out of the Maze. Before long, they’re making a list.

“Find out what it’s like to kiss someone,” Newt says one day, during one of Frypan’s special noodle soup dinners.

“Your fifth priority is to kiss someone?” Minho asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Maybe. Isn’t it one of yours?”

“Girls aren’t really high up on my list right now. I’m trying to survive here,” Minho jokes.

Newt raises an eyebrow. “Who said it had to be girls?”

Minho almost chokes on his soup.

—————

He knows, though, that it might not work. He might not be able to talk Newt out of jumping. Things don’t always end up like fairy tale happy endings.

It’s almost too good to hope when the day arrives, and Newt flashes him a bright smile and agrees to go running with him.

Newt doesn’t jump.

He stays a runner, and more importantly, stays _alive_.

This timeline feels more right than the others ever did, even compared to the original. He starts to focus on the cure.

After all, if his namesake could cure cancer, it shouldn’t take him too long to cure Newt.

—————

Once they get out of the Scorch, he finds a science laboratory in one of the deserted buildings, and begins his research. When the rest of the group wants to move on, he refuses. Thomas looks at him like he’s crazy.

“Think, Minho! There’s no way we’ll find the cure in time; look at him!” He exclaims, gesturing to Newt, who is curled up in a corner of the room, staring into empty space.

“Don’t worry,” Minho grins, hope within his grasp for the first time in a long, long while. “I’ve got forever.”

In the end, although the rest of the group doesn’t want to part with him, he convinces Thomas to lead them away. He’s in the middle of balancing out an equation when Newt speaks for the first time since they left.

“Why’d ya stay?” His voice is almost too soft for Minho to hear.

“Take a guess,” Minho says, shaking a vial.

“Promise.”

“Hmm?”

“Promise me that if I try to hurt ya, you’ll kill me.” He slides the gun towards Minho.

Minho doesn’t answer.

—————

He doesn’t make it in time, but hell if he’s going to shoot Newt, so before Newt can react, he turns the gun on himself and pulls the trigger.

Thank god for that eidetic memory.

—————

EIGHT

He doesn’t have all the time in the world, he knows that, not unless he wants to repeat the cycle until he goes mad. He may not have time, but he’s not about to let the boy he wants to save jump off the tallest part of the Maze.

So, he uses precious time to talk to him.

Newt doesn’t remember any of it, but that’s okay. They talk about different things: about Bark, the LabradorRetriever in the glade (really, though, he’s Newt’s), about fallen gladers along the way, about family they might have had.

In his spare time, he does more calculations until they reach the science lab.

And the cycle begins.

—————

ELEVEN

No matter how many repeats it takes, he never gets tired of it. Talking to Newt. Seeing his face light up when he talks to him.

Minho likes Newt, he’s sure of it. He doesn’t know when it started. He only realises for sure when he sees some of himself in the way Sonya looks at Harriet.

It spurs him on, and when he stays behind to work on the lab, Sonya looks at his research and into his eyes and decides to help. To no one’s surprise, and Sonya’s delight, Harriet agrees, and ropes in a couple of others. The group ends up staying for a couple of days, but soon, Thomas demands that they leave. It’s a wise choice for a leader, and Minho doesn’t ask any of them to stay.

Some do anyway.

—————

TWELVE

He’s close, he can feel it.

But he also doesn’t think he can stand seeing the look in Newt’s eyes when they clear as he turns the gun away from Newt and towards himself.

—————

SIXTEEN

He finishes his research, but not in time.

This time, he knows he can’t stand it, so he closes his eyes.

It’s a mistake.

That split second is a mistake, because the gun swivels in his hands to face Newt, and Newt covers Minho’s finger on the trigger with his own.

And shoots.

—————

SEVENTEEN

He wakes up.

He’s haunted by his mistake, that last image of Newt’s face. He uses it to fuel his work, fine-tuning the cure, and he develops a plan to sneak into W.I.C.K.E.D. labs to develop the cure right after they exit the Maze. When it’s done, he breaks down in front of Newt first, mostly due to relief, before Newt has the chance to tell his best friend how trapped he feels in this Maze.

They end up talking for hours, more than they ever have before, about the same things and new things all at once. Minho decides to take a risk. When Alby takes a suicidal, self-sacrificing step towards the grievers, Minho pulls him back, and tells the medjacks to keep him there. Alby lives.

Before they run out of the Maze for the last time, Newt looks at him and says, “If we don’t get through this, just to let ya know, I kinda like you.”

Minho’s brain freezes, and he stands there, shell-shocked. “What,” he says, and it’s definitely not his finest moment, especially when Newt has to shove him in the direction of the exit. He’d never expected Newt to like him back. Newt had never liked him back. Right?

—————

He takes another risk. He tackles Gally this time, and the bullet grazes Chuck’s shoulder. Chuck lives.

—————

Later on, after the announcement made about the Flare, when he sneaks towards the labs, he realises he never responded to Newt’s direct declaration. He’s still thinking about it as he finishes the cure, enough to give to the gladers from both groups. He leaves a set of instructions behind, on how to make the cure, and makes sure to send it to everyone he can via the computer in the lab. Then, he starts handing them out to the rest of the gladers.

“I found them,” he lies when they ask. “When I went snooping around their labs.”

He’s reserved the last one especially for Newt, and pulls him aside to give it personally, just to see the look on his face.

“You didn’t just find this,” Newt says, wonder in his voice. “I don’t know how, but you made this, didn’t you? That’s what you were working on in the Maze. Somehow. You knew about the Flare.”

“Yes,” he answers honestly.

“How?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Let’s just say… aliens.” Minho jokes.

Newt looks at him doubtfully. “Okay, then why?”

Minho looks at Newt.

“For you.”

“Me?”

“I… found records. W.I.C.K.E.D. lied. Most of us are immune to the Flare. You’re not. But soon, you will be.”

“You made this for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Take a guess,” Minho answered smoothly, before pressing his lips to Newt’s.

—————

The cure spreads rapidly. Turns out, W.I.C.K.E.D. has some pretty important people on their mailing list. Both groups of gladers decide that they’ve had enough of W.I.C.K.E.D. for a lifetime (and for Minho, several) and most of them decide to use the portal in the headquarters to go to Paradise.

There is no single leader in this new Paradise. Instead, there are four: Sonya, Harriet, Alby and Newt. They vote to rename Paradise (Minho suggests Para-lives, but it seems that there are no takers) and this time, they use group B’s idea of rotating jobs, so no one person is above another. They establish a system.

Once they’ve all settled down, Minho takes a moment to look around at this new Paradise, with Alby, Chuck, Teresa, and Newt, and decides that he prefers it.

**Author's Note:**

> minewt has started up again on tumblr and in my soul so i hope you guys enjoy this!! kudos to the people starting up the minewt bang love u guys (also pls like and comment if u can thank you wonderful people!!!)


End file.
